As the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus seemingly gets out of control, keeping employees at home and overloading testing centres, infections have reached record highs in the United States, parts of Europe, and Australia.
The frequently mutating coronavirus is running amok in many regions of the world, prompting governments to reassess quarantine and testing procedures almost two years since China first disclosed a concentration of "viral pneumonia" infections in the city of Wuhan.
Even though some studies have indicated that the Omicron variant is less lethal than its previous variants, the large number of people who have tested positive means that hospitals in some countries may soon be overwhelmed, and businesses may find it difficult to continue operating due to workers being quarantined.
On Tuesday, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Malta all set new records for new cases.
According to reports, the average number of daily Cvodi-19 cases in the United States has likewise reached an all-time high in the last seven days. In January of this year the country had reached the previous high in the number of cases.
On Wednesday, new daily infections in Australia reached roughly 18,300, surpassing the previous high of the infections since the pandemic had started of around 11,300 set a day before.
Long walk-in and drive-in lines have been recorded in a number of places, according to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said his country needed a "gear change" to manage overworked laboratories.
In other European countries, such as Spain, demand for free Covid-19-19 testing kits issued by Madrid's regional government considerably outstripped supply on Tuesday, with long lines forming outside pharmacies.
A lot of nations were also concerned about the large number of people being compelled to go into self-isolation after coming into touch with a coronavirus patient.
"We just can't have everybody just being taken out of circulation because they just happen to be at a particular place at a particular time," Australia's Morrison told reporters.
On Wednesday, Italy was poised to loosen some of its quarantine laws amid fears that the country would soon come to a standstill due to the large number of people forced to self-isolate protectively, with cases more than tripling from a day earlier to 78,313.
China, on the other hand, continued to enforce its zero-tolerance policy against outbreaks, keeping 13 million people in the city of Xian under strict lockdown for the seventh day as additional Covid-19 infections emerged, with 151 cases confirmed on Tuesday.
Many nations are still dealing with the Delta strain, notably Poland, which reported 794 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday, the most in the pandemic's fourth wave.
More than 75 per cent of those who died, according to Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska, were unvaccinated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) noted in its latest epidemiological study released overnight that early evidence from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Denmark suggests the Omicron version had a lower risk of hospitalization than the Delta variant.
However, the report stated that more evidence is needed to determine how immunization and/or past infection may affect the severity of illness.
The increase in instances coincides with the New Year's holiday season, which is traditionally a time of parties and travel. Authorities in Japan have asked citizens to keep end-of-year festivities small, while some countries, such as Italy, have canceled public celebrations.
"The highest risk is meeting people without taking adequate measures to prevent infection," said Norio Ohmagari, director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center and a top health advisor to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
The frequently mutating coronavirus is running amok in many regions of the world, prompting governments to reassess quarantine and testing procedures almost two years since China first disclosed a concentration of "viral pneumonia" infections in the city of Wuhan.
Even though some studies have indicated that the Omicron variant is less lethal than its previous variants, the large number of people who have tested positive means that hospitals in some countries may soon be overwhelmed, and businesses may find it difficult to continue operating due to workers being quarantined.
On Tuesday, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Malta all set new records for new cases.
According to reports, the average number of daily Cvodi-19 cases in the United States has likewise reached an all-time high in the last seven days. In January of this year the country had reached the previous high in the number of cases.
On Wednesday, new daily infections in Australia reached roughly 18,300, surpassing the previous high of the infections since the pandemic had started of around 11,300 set a day before.
Long walk-in and drive-in lines have been recorded in a number of places, according to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said his country needed a "gear change" to manage overworked laboratories.
In other European countries, such as Spain, demand for free Covid-19-19 testing kits issued by Madrid's regional government considerably outstripped supply on Tuesday, with long lines forming outside pharmacies.
A lot of nations were also concerned about the large number of people being compelled to go into self-isolation after coming into touch with a coronavirus patient.
"We just can't have everybody just being taken out of circulation because they just happen to be at a particular place at a particular time," Australia's Morrison told reporters.
On Wednesday, Italy was poised to loosen some of its quarantine laws amid fears that the country would soon come to a standstill due to the large number of people forced to self-isolate protectively, with cases more than tripling from a day earlier to 78,313.
China, on the other hand, continued to enforce its zero-tolerance policy against outbreaks, keeping 13 million people in the city of Xian under strict lockdown for the seventh day as additional Covid-19 infections emerged, with 151 cases confirmed on Tuesday.
Many nations are still dealing with the Delta strain, notably Poland, which reported 794 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday, the most in the pandemic's fourth wave.
More than 75 per cent of those who died, according to Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska, were unvaccinated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) noted in its latest epidemiological study released overnight that early evidence from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Denmark suggests the Omicron version had a lower risk of hospitalization than the Delta variant.
However, the report stated that more evidence is needed to determine how immunization and/or past infection may affect the severity of illness.
The increase in instances coincides with the New Year's holiday season, which is traditionally a time of parties and travel. Authorities in Japan have asked citizens to keep end-of-year festivities small, while some countries, such as Italy, have canceled public celebrations.
"The highest risk is meeting people without taking adequate measures to prevent infection," said Norio Ohmagari, director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center and a top health advisor to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
